An adventure-seeking feminist academic blogging about travel, education, personal growth, and the need for societal change!

collisions

We connected at a crossing.
For me it was a standstill,
a silent resting beat;
For you,
a crescendo, a scream,
that never came back down.

We were both there, together,
but came and left in different vehicles.
We collided.
We hurt.
We felt everything and nothing that our bodies would allow.

Seconds
Hours
and now years into decades.
I remember that day, always.
Just after three,
we celebrate.
And I have rarely stopped to remember
that it would be just the opposite in your closed eyes –
Overwhelming, nonsensical loss,
While we rejoice in life.

My life has continued to collide with so many other lives.
I have been torn down and
at times, have struggled to keep going.
But I welcome these trials
as part of life that not everyone gets.
Each collision building on the last,
and we are all connected forever in those moments.

Every fiber of my body pulses to this memory
and you live on with me in that moment.
Even now, it rises
deep in my chest.
And I cry out –
a deep fortissimo –
for you,
And for your loves,
And your life.
I will carry you with me forever.
My life changed course
when yours’ crossed over.